After the intensely hypnotic synth-punk of last year’s Intercepted Message and the anarcho-punk of the prior year’s A Foul Form, the ever-mutable Osees are returning today with details on their latest collection of songs, SORCS 80, which will see the West Coast rockers embrace a more playful approach. Most notably, the album’s writing process saw John Dwyer swap his guitar for Roland SPD-SX samplers and electronic percussion, which he describes as “a complete pivot in writing method and approach. I played drums, looped them, then laid out the sounds on a sampler and just found the song therein,” he explains. “I also wrote the seed of lyrics during that process. Everything else was flushed out in rehearsals over the next month or so.”
The first taste of the new record we get to hear is the still-deeply-Osees-y “Cassius, Brutus & Judas,” a buzzing anti-traitor anthem that reverberates with the same egg-punk energy of the band’s recent output as Dwyer’s raging vocals clash with gentle saxophone and clanking percussion. “I’m amazed at the power money has over people and how it can make them act like pigs,” Dwyer says. “That’s what this song is about.”
Following the record’s release on August 9, the band will hit the road for an extensive set of US dates running from the end of August to the end of October. “Not sure the samplers will make the cut as they are finnicky as fuck,” Dwyer notes.
In the meantime, check out the new track below. Tickets for all the band’s upcoming dates are on sale here.
